Work in progress report

I've been holding out on you guys. I have several projects on the needles that I haven't blogged about yet. Time for a little roundup.

Broadripple socks in Cascade Fixation:


I started these on the honeymoon and haven't really touched them since we got back. I like the way it's coming out but the knitting isn't so pleasant - I feel like knitting fixation on size 3s makes a pretty tight fabric and kind of gives me that finger crampy feeling when I'm knitting. Also, you know what? I hate 7" bamboo DPNs. They always bump into my hands in such an unpleasant way. Much bigger fan of 6" DPNs for sock knitting.

Hourglass sweater from LMKG in Noro Cash Iroha:


I think the cabled turtleneck is going to have some tough competition as the best sweater I've ever knitted. This one is looking pretty good. The yarn is very soft and silky, and such an awesome vibrant blue. I've tipped the edges with a few rows of this light blue wool-silk blend (lost the ball bands so I have no idea what the yarn is). Once the edges are sewn down the light blue edging will be much more subtle as most of what you see will be on the inside.

Some progress on the ribbed Mark and Kattens socks for my Dad:


Yes, my dad has huge feet, and don't worry, these socks are very stretchy so they're not really as skinny as they look. This yarn is also kind of killing my fingers. It's a wool-cotton-nylon blend and it's just ugh. Not fun to knit with. I'm really not crazy about the colors either. I've decided that life is too short to knit with yarns I don't love, even if it's for someone else. I'll finish these, but I've put almost all my cotton-containing yarn up for sale on the new Destash site. Check them out here if you're interested, there's some sock yarns, Tahki cotton classic (that top I was making with it was quickly frogged, what was I thinking?), some linen yarn, and some KP laceweight merino. I'll be flexible on the prices for my blog readers!

My tiredness and crankyness and general dissatisfaction with the Mark and Kattens socks led me to start these last night:


Embossed leaves socks from IK's Favorite socks in KP Gloss. Aaaaah. My fingers are so much happier. I've had a few different things of gloss in the stash for a while but this is the first time I've had it on the needles. It feels so nice. I've been thinking of ordering enough Gloss to make Thermal but wanted to make something smaller with it first to see how it holds up. I've heard bad things about stretching and felting, but we'll see. So far I'm loving it.

Tired and cranky

I'm tired and cranky. But I am also itching to blog about this stinkin cabled turtleneck sweater, since I finally got around to lengthening it (picking out the ribbing from the bottom and knitting down some more ribbing was less traumatic than I thought it would be). I will try to put mostly pictures and not too many words, so that my crankiness doesn't overshadow the post too much.

Finally done!


Specs:
Pattern: The imaginatively named "Cabled Turtleneck" from Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2006. Apparently the designer is "Lang designs". I wonder in what circumstances the actual human designer doesn't get to be named. Did it really take a whole team of designers to come up with this sweater? Is there a ghost designer?
Yarn: Cascade 220 heather, in Lichen. Just under 6 skeins.
Needles: Size 6 and 7 denises
Mods: Made it a crewneck instead of a turtleneck
Started Jan 2007, finished July 20 2007. Ouch. Moral of the story, maybe I should pick sweaters with less seaming in the future.

Some more pics



Ta-da!

Bad daughter?

So, I was going to start some socks for my Dad with that Lorna's Laces he wanted, but then I wound the skein up:


Now I don't want to give this yarn away any more! Look how pretty! I want it all for me me me! This is the problem with trying to knit gifts out of your stash, it's mostly all yarn I've picked out because I wanted it for myself.

So I started these other socks for my Dad out of a Mark + Kattens cotton blend yarn instead:


I have all kinds of excuses for why I'm not making them out of the Lorna's Laces - these new ones will be sturdier, he probably won't even remember which yarn he picked out, he'll like this cool self-patterning stuff. But I feel a little guilty. Maybe I'll make him two pairs.

Monkeys v2.0

Monkeys part 2 are done! They would have been done a lot sooner if it weren't for a certain devil cat:


Don't let that cute face fool you. An evil heart lurks beneath that fuzzy exterior! While we were in Seattle for the long weekend, she somehow got the second sock in progress down from the top of the bookshelf where I left it, and chewed up all the yarn. Grrrr. Originally I started frantically knotting all the bits of yarn together to finish the second sock, but even with all those knots it wasn't going to happen. So I had to frog a repeat back from the first sock and finish them both a little shorter. They're a little saggier than the longer version would have been - the cuff could stand to be a bit longer. But I'm quite sick of frogging and reknitting these, I think I'll just look for some elastic to run through the top.

Without further delay, voila!


Monkey socks by Cookie A., of course.
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, 2 skeins (minus the chewed up bits, grr.)
Needles: 2.5mm for the foot, 2.75mm for the ankle, 3.0mm for the top of the leg.
Mods: knit toe-up, all purl stitches knit.
Started: end of May 2007
Finished: beginning of July 2007





These are my first Koigu socks, I LOVE this yarn. I want to trade all my other yarn for more and more Koigu!

On color and masculinity

J. and I went up to Seattle for a long 4th of July weekend to see my parents. I heart Seattle.
Anyway, you may remember that I made my Dad some socks last Christmas. He wears them All The Time. I was so touched, especially because this was the first knitted gift I'd given him - he kept insisting that he wouldn't wear anything knitted and not to waste my time. Anyway, I thought I would make him another pair for next Christmas (as part of my whole having no salary for the next year, I think I'll be knitting a lot of presents). I showed him all my sock yarn pictures on Ravelry and these are the ones he picked out:


Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Mill Ends, leftover from my Clapotis


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Buck's Bar

I just thought it was interesting, especially in light of the fact that J. seems to think any color that is not drab green, brown, or gray has some magic powers to drain his heterosexuality away. I guess growing up with my Dad kind of blinded me to the fact that most men don't wear colorful things. My Dad had this neon pink baseball cap that he wore constantly when I was junior high-aged. He got it for free at a gas station. The most embarassing part, to young teenage me, was that he had a wide selection of colors and CHOSE the pink one. But grownup me is more than happy to knit him some colorful socks. I think most "masculine" colors are boring.

The summer of Rachel

Remember that Seinfeld episode, with the summer of George?

I am officially unemployed. Wait, maybe I should frame that more positively. I am officially a doctor! And I'm also unemployed, as of about ten days ago. (To be clear, I have been in a PhD program for the last almost 5 years, and they paid me.) It's looking more and more like I'm going to be unemployed until September, when I'm heading down here. This is more due to laziness on my part than lack of hireability. I had something vaguely lined up and it fell through, and I haven't been inspired to apply for anything else. But I'm feeling really, really good about having this time off. It feels especially freeing to be out of school and unemployed in the summer months. I've had summer jobs (or real jobs, or school) since I was 16, so I'm kind of feeling like a kid again! J. and I just made s'mores over the burner.

What other cool summery things could I do? Besides knitting, obviously. I've been doing lots of baking. And some writing. And more knitting. Maybe when it gets hot enough again I'll run through a sprinkler.

I leave you with some hot girl on yarn action. I bought myself a little graduation prezzie:


I've been remiss in showing pictures of my yarn recently. Everyone needs to see a little yarn action now and then. This stuff is so amazing that I couldn't not show pictures of it. It's like the Elle Macpherson of yarns.





Yum.

When is an FO not an FO?

When it's ajar! Ha ha! Wait, that makes no sense.

Anyway, remember this guy?



Of course you do, I've been taunting you with pictures of it for months. Well, it's seamed, blocked, and dry, but it's too damn short.

Let me tell you a little something I figured out about negative ease. This is probably incredibly obvious, although it didn't occur to me until after I had already made the mistake. This sweater measures 36" around and 22" long when it's on the ground. 22" long seems just fine, I have plenty of sweaters that length and they fit great. I have a 38" bust. I like the 2" of negative ease, I think a worsted weight cabled sweater should fit a little snug on someone with my body type, so I don't look like a giant wooly ball. But here's the kicker. That 2" stretch has to come from somewhere. Hence the sweater being too short once I put it on. Doh. So now I will be attempting to rip out the ribbing from the bottom and reknitting the ribbed part longer. Eek! Scary.

You know how with some projects, you're so excited about knitting it that mistakes come along and you just rip right back and keep on going? Because you chalk it all up to part of the general knitting process? And you know that no project will ever come out right the first time through? And knitting puts you in such a zen mindset that little errors just roll right off your back? Yeah, me neither. I always think that every project will be perfect the first time, and every mistake or setback just pisses me off and I have to hide the project in the closet for a while until I'm calmer. Hence the fact that this sweater has been hiding in my closet for a few weeks. I'm almost ready to take it back out and fix it.

Socks seem to be the exception to this rule. They don't piss me off nearly as much as bigger projects. I don't know why that is.

I finished the first Koigu Monkey sock (toe-up) all on size 2.5mm needles, and the leg was way too tight. Somehow the sock managed to charm its way out of being chucked in the closet and I just ripped the leg out, reknit the ankle on size 2.75mm, and the rest of the leg on 3.0mm. Perfect!



I am totally converted to this whole toe-up thing. The miser in me loves using up every last yard of yarn. Now if I can only make myself cast on for the second sock.

Finally dry!

Take one monkey*


Turn it upside down


Add one pair of bare tootsies

(Excuse the bandaid, I ripped up my toe in yoga somehow. Sticky mats my bum, they should call them shreddy mats.)

What do you get?

One pair of toe-up monkey socks!


Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Copperbeech, almost 1 skein
Needles: Knitpicks size 1 DPNs (2.5 mm)
I never have revealed the time it took me to finish a project, mainly because I usually find it embarassing how long it takes. But it occurs to me that it might be useful to keep track of this kind of thing, so I'll swallow my pride and start telling ya. But please keep in mind that I am very fickle and never work on one project exclusively.
Started: May 9, 2007
Finished: May 28, 2007 (I think?)
Pattern: Monkey socks from Knitty, of course!
Mods: Knit toe-up. They're upside down! I basically just took the toe-up pattern from the IK Summer 2007 issue and applied the Monkey chart to it.

Toes! Magic cast-on


Heels! Short row heel


I'm unsure of the short-row heel. These socks are kind of hard to get on over my foot, but once they're on they do feel like they're staying in place better than my other handknit socks.

Verdict: I love this pattern! I love these socks! With one giant, glaring exception. I hate this yarn. I was lured into buying it on impulse at my LYS because of all those pretty pretty colorways peering out at me. I didn't even realize the horrible yardage (less than 300 yds! For $21!) until I got home. But that's not the worst part. Here's the worst part.

Sock #1


Sock #2


Notice anything? Like how the colors on the leg of sock #2 are totally different? There was a knot about 3/4 of the way through the skein, and the colors were completely different on either side of the knot. For $21, such crappy yardage, and THE BASTARDS TIED TWO DIFFERENT COLOR LOTS TOGETHER. I'm not the only one this has happened to either. I've heard alot of stories about people getting skeins with tons of knots in them too. You better believe I will not be purchasing this yarn again. Y'all consider yourself forewarned. Needless to say, my messages to the US distributors have gone ignored. Luckily my LYS is awesome and the owner gave me the entire price of the skein back in store credit, without even asking for the defective skein back.

Anyway, pissiness about the yarn aside, I'm still pretty happy with these socks. Especially because I wear jeans almost every day, so the legs aren't even going to be visible.

Happy feets!


So happy that I started another pair immediately:


I'm being a copycat and am knitting all the stitches that are normally purled. I think it gives it a more subtle, smooth look, plus it's much faster. Yarn is Koigu KPPPM that I got with my aforementioned store credit from my awesome LYS.

*These monkeys are Capuchin monkeys we saw on a boat ride in Costa Rica. So cute! We got to feed them bananas. Probably breaking all kinds of eco-regulations about not feeding the wildlife, but so so cute! With their little human-like fingers! And their funny little faces!

I wish I lived in Arizona

If I lived in Arizona, I would have had FOs to show you several days ago. As it is, I wet-blocked some things AT LEAST a week ago and they are still not dry. San Francisco is unbelievable. It's a constant losing battle trying to find somewhere or some way to hang your towel so that it will be dry by the next day. You don't even want to know about the crazy prolific molds and mildews. Maybe I should stick to lace until I move somewhere drier. Anyway here are some previews. I promise I'll show you the real things as soon as they are dry enough to model (any week now...)

So Close.

The seaming is finally done. The collar is picked up and knitted. The sweater actually fits beautifully, it's not tight under the arms at all, I think the shoulders are just lower than I'm used to so I kept trying to hitch them all the way up. But if I just let them sit where they want to sit it feels great. Just one tiny problem:



Ick. See how floppy and sloppy that collar looks? Ick ick ick. I can't wait until I get to the point in my knitting skills where I can look at directions in a pattern and think jeez, that sounds like a horrible idea, instead of just blindly following them. The collar is K3, P3, except then the last round they have you K1, P1 all the way around.



Ick. I think this is mainly responsible for the sloppy looking edge, although I also somehow managed to bind off too loosely (which never happens to me). I'm picking that stupid K1P1 row out as we speak, then will try binding off a bit more tightly. Fingers crossed!

Oh and P.S., Costa Rica was beautiful.